These are the type of politically charged sermons people have come to expect from Starbucks under its charismatic leader, an outspoken liberal whose name has been floated as a possible candidate for president in the past.

Stock and morality

Schultz has often turned these yearly gatherings of shareholders into — among other things — a soapbox for his lofty moralizing on issues of the day like same-sex marriage, race and wealth distribution.

Occasionally — as with last year’s ill-fated call for baristas to discuss race issues with customers — he takes the company and its employees along with him.

Earlier that day, he had already announced a new program that would help his employees register to vote, progress towards a goal of hiring more veterans and a hunger relief initiative.

"I ask you to share your blanket"

“It seems like I’m just ticking off one issue in America after another, but that’s not my intention,” he said afterwards, trying to preempt any accusations of empty showboating.

After setting the scene with Kennedy, he pushed on in the same vein, lamenting what he saw as a dwindling sense of trust in America’s politicians and institutions — it’s all “fool’s gold,” he said — and reminiscing about attending a John F. Kennedy rally as a poor kid in Brooklyn.

Despite the Kennedy allusions, he avoided taking any explicit sides in the current presidential race; an image from a democratic debate appeared just before one from the GOP side in the slideshow of American decline.

(He did, however, mock Donald Trump’s claim that the Starbucks store in Trump Tower was one of the company’s most successful during a media montage making fun of the controversy over red Christmas cups.)

The speech ended on a somber note of personal responsibility: “Given what’s going on in the world,” Schultz said. “I ask you to share your blanket with others.”

And now, for our shareholders...Alicia Keys!

With that, a grand piano and mic were rushed onto the stage, and Schultz introduced Alicia Keys, giving her a hug on his way out.

It seems safe to say that Keys’ schedule probably isn’t full of big corporate shareholder meetings.

But Starbucks’ annual gathering isn’t like most other events of its kind — and it’s not just because of Schultz’ preaching.

The whole thing is a spectacle, from the regular celebrity musical guests to performing arts displays to the general sense among the people there that this brand is about something more than just coffee, pastries and light jazz.

Keys' performance wasn't even the first musical number of the day; the event kicked off with a traditional performance by a contingent of Chinese drummers and dancers, meant to mark the company’s aggressive push into the country.

Starbucks workers from China perform a traditional drum and dance piece, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, to open the coffee company's annual shareholders meeting in Seattle.

Image: Associated press / Ted S. Warren

In fact, the actual shareholder agenda took up less than 15 minutes of the two-hour meeting. It consisted of an executive with the sorry task of following Alicia Keys reading the items off drily as droves of people funneled out early.

An annual pilgrimage

Thousands had lined up in the damp cold as early as three hours before the meeting started, and pop-up tents were set up with broadcast screens so that those who inevitably didn’t fit inside could watch from outdoors.

Because Starbucks gives all of its employees shares of stock, workers from all levels of the company were able to attend, and the crowd was particularly young and diverse.

For some Starbucks enthusiasts, the meeting is an annual pilgrimage of sorts. People travel here from all over the country, and many form groups to meet up for the yearly excursion.

The reputation for extravagance certainly doesn’t hurt when attracting new shareholders.

“These shareholder meetings do a lot to word of mouth of us as shareholders telling our friends to buy Starbucks shares,” said John Schooler, a retired attorney from Southern California who meets up with friends from Florida for the trip. “It actually does have a domino effect.”

Image: starbucks

Most of these people are here for the show — in addition to keeping tabs on their investment — but a select handful come with another mission in mind: They want to take advantage of the face time with the CEO to air a concern they have — and it doesn’t matter how trivial.

"Do you know what manatees are, Howard?"

At times, the Q&A portion at the end of the event felt more like a quirky local government meeting worthy of NBC’s Parks and Recreation than that of a Fortune 500 company.

Schultz fielded questions on everything from the shortage of appropriately sized tables in a store near San Diego and a favorite chocolate cookie prematurely removed from the menu to a barista who claims she was unfairly fired and whether Starbucks has a plan to curb exorbitant U.S. student debt (Pay employees generous wages, Schultz replied to the last one after paying lip service to the magnitude of the problem).

One older man, who stood up to ask about gluten-free items, brought knowing smiles from some audience members who remembered him asking the exact same question the year before.

Cagie Peardon came from Florida with dreams of bringing a Starbucks to her small town of Crystal River, a fast-growing tourist destination that bills itself as the “Home of the Manatees.”

“I’m on the tree board of the city, and I’m always like, ‘Let’s get Starbucks here. Let’s get Starbucks here,’” she says. “They call me ‘Mrs. Starbucks’ down there.”

When she finally got the chance to float the idea to Schultz, she began her pitch with a surefire hook: “Do you know what manatees are, Howard?”

Image: starbucks

But for all the airing of grievances, not a single person stood up to take issue with Schultz’ unabashedly progressive agenda.

Part of the reason is that the meeting takes place in a famously liberal bastion of the Pacific Northwest, and many of those in attendance were locals.

Taking a stand

Many of the shareholders Mashable talked to said Schultz’s views matched their own and applauded him for taking a stand — even if it ends as disastrously as #RaceTogether did.

By now, people generally know what to expect from the left-leaning CEO.

That’s not to say that others don’t have qualms with the social activism. Peardon says she agrees with Schultz’s worldview but doesn’t think the meeting is the right venue for such a discussion, pointing to the Christmas cup protest as an example of how discussions might go off the rails.

“I don’t know that the meeting is the right place for that to take place,” she says. “I just love Howard Schultz; I love the philosophy and I love how he treats the employees; and I love his social values — which are important — but there’s such a mixed bag here that he has to be careful.”

People waiting for the start of the Starbucks annual shareholders meeting drink coffee and visit along a balcony at McCaw Hall, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, in Seattle.

Image: Associated press/Ted S. Warren

Schultz offered a rebuke to any critics of the company’s social activism during his time on-stage.

“Now in the past, I must tell you, some have questioned even criticized these initiatives and me. As in, ‘This is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to do one thing: Make money,’” Schultz said. “I must tell you — not with arrogance — that I really reject that. I reject that because I believe that the rules of engagement for businesses and business leaders as citizens of change.”

“All of these social impact initiatives are linked to the aspirations we have as a company,” he added.

And for anyone who argues that social causes lose the company money: “I can tell you unequivocally that that is wrong,” Schultz says.

Still some shareholders don’t care much one way or the other about Schultz’s politics; their attitude is that you get what you sign up for when you opt own a piece of a corporation with such a personality at the helm.

“That’s Howard,” said Randy Hoffmaster, a longtime shareholder from the Seattle area, when asked about the impassioned speech. “He can say what he wants to say.”

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.